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Sunday, June 18, 2017

Politics and class in Kensington

This is from a Liberal Democrat News column I wrote in November 1999, before most of my readers were born.

I had been down to Kensington and Chelsea to give me something to write about help in a by-election. The Conservative candidate was Michael Portillo.

Sent out canvassing, I found that few residents were in:

So instead I talked to a council workman who was sweeping up the leaves. He soon explained my difficulty: "They'll all be at their places in the country." He also pointed out a house that had just had a million pounds spent on it. It hadn't been bought for a million, you understand, just renovated.

"Mind you," he went on, "this is a funny area. You've got judges living here, and junkies down the road."

"Judges and junkies: I like that," I said, thinking I might steal the line for this column.

"Judges and junkies in juxtaposition," he replied, effortlessly topping it.

And he was right; it is a funny area. Politics in Kensington and Chelsea remains polarised on class lines to an extent you rarely see nowadays. Not a single council ward has changed hands here since 1982.